Small Leg Quarters for turn in???

[Q-Dat]

I've been thinking about this for a while. Suppose I got three very young chickens(I can get 2lb dressed birds)

And I cut the leg quarters and cooked them. I should be able to fit six in the box easily. They should also be pretty symetrical due to the fact that they will come from only three birds. This should make for a really nice presentation. Plus I think that leg quarters cook up juicier than thighs or drums alone.

Anybody think the judges would freak? I cant see why they would. Its the two most common chicken turn ins just together.

[4 smokin butts]

we did this once only seperated them,turned in 6 legs,6 thighs,did extremely well

[AZScott]

Give it a go. We did this with cornish game hens one time.

[jrbBBQ]

Like this? I've done it a couple time, the scores were pretty inconsistant. Appearance with this one was 8,9,8,7,7,9

[RangerJ]

My half chickens do better than my thighs, my wife keeps trying to convince me to go all "Pablo Diablo" and figure out a way to slice the breast and insert the leg, thigh and wing into something symmetrical.

I've done it for "anything but" with a different chicken recipe and it has won / worked, but I'm a bit leery about trying it for a turn in.

[Carnivorous Endeavors BBQ]

I'd go with the cornish game hens if you are gonna try that....but would definitely watch that the white meat doesn't dry out.

[ssbbqguy]

I like your leg box. Looks lots better than the last one I turned in, which didn't fare well. At least the pieces look like they came from a real animal, not like marshmallow puffs w/ sauce. On your grill marks, I would like to see some color, meaning more flavor.Also figure a way to get seasoning left in glaze to be more even. As long as the taste and texture was killer, I'd be temtped to try those again.Steve.

[gmholler]

I judged a box like you're describing this past weekend in Baton Rouge. I liked the ease that it came out of the box with when I took a piece, and there wasn't all that much sauce on it, so it wasn't messy, but apparently I took a bite in just the wrong place. I was shooting for the top of the leg, right next to where it joins the thigh. I bit into it, and all this juice squirted out, all over one leg of my shorts! Needless to say, I didn't exactly keep my composure and a straight face as that hot liquid hit my skin! The judges around me got a good laugh, tho...

Lynn H.

[Just Pulin' Pork]

Originally Posted by gmholler

I judged a box like you're describing this past weekend in Baton Rouge. I liked the ease that it came out of the box with when I took a piece, and there wasn't all that much sauce on it, so it wasn't messy, but apparently I took a bite in just the wrong place. I was shooting for the top of the leg, right next to where it joins the thigh. I bit into it, and all this juice squirted out, all over one leg of my shorts! Needless to say, I didn't exactly keep my composure and a straight face as that hot liquid hit my skin! The judges around me got a good laugh, tho...

Lynn H.

Please do not tell me you judged down on that did you?

[jrbBBQ]

Originally Posted by ssbbqguy

I like your leg box. Looks lots better than the last one I turned in, which didn't fare well. At least the pieces look like they came from a real animal, not like marshmallow puffs w/ sauce. On your grill marks, I would like to see some color, meaning more flavor.Also figure a way to get seasoning left in glaze to be more even. As long as the taste and texture was killer, I'd be temtped to try those again.Steve.

Thanks, I'm not trying to hijack Q-dat's thread, I was just giving him an example of what I've tried and the kinda of apperance scores it recieved. I appreciate the commoents though! There are so many ways to bulid a chicken box with different kinds of meat and combinations. I'm struggling with it, but I've only done 3 competitions. I'm thinking I'm gonna need to take a competition class at the end of the year.

[QansasjayhawQ]

I think that makes for a nice presentation. Assuming your taste and tenderness are excellent, the appearance score would not suffer, in my opinion.

However, heed the advise above regarding your grill marks, etc.

But yeah - I think it would fly very nicely with the judges.

[Q-Dat]

Originally Posted by jrbBBQ

Thanks, I'm not trying to hijack Q-dat's thread, I was just giving him an example of what I've tried and the kinda of apperance scores it recieved. I appreciate the commoents though! There are so many ways to bulid a chicken box with different kinds of meat and combinations. I'm struggling with it, but I've only done 3 competitions. I'm thinking I'm gonna need to take a competition class at the end of the year.

Those look really good to me. I doubt that your inconsistent scores had anything to do with them being leg quarters and not thighs alone. Probably some color preferences between judges on the sauce, and the skin.

Were those cornish or just small chickens?

[RangerJ]

What are these "grill marks" I hear bantered about? I've seen very few pics of the "perfect bite through skin" that has a grill mark.

I see a geometrically un-natural shape, typcially with a slathered in honey golden brown hue. But these "beautiful" boxes typcially don't have a grill mark.

[parrdist]

I like the look. How was the skin?

[gmholler]

Originally Posted by Just Pulin' Pork

Please do not tell me you judged down on that did you?

Of course not. I picked the wrong area to take a bite from; that's *my* problem - the cooker couldn't have forseen that. Any "normal" person would've most likely tried the thigh, anyway...

Lynn H.